Colts Camp Notebook Day 9: Richardson, Leonard Finish Strong

Colts Camp Notebook Day 9: Richardson, Leonard Finish Strong

INDIANAPOLIS – The final morning practice from Grand Park occurred on Sunday.

It’s time for the Colts hit the road, taking on the Patriots in a joint practice on Tuesday and then playing their first preseason game on Thursday, both of those in Foxborough.

Here are some takeaways from Day 9 of Colts training camp:

-Sunday was one of the rougher days for Daniel Jones and the starting offense. Prior to Sunday, the bar has been relatively high for this unit when it comes to throwing the ball, but things were much more a challenge on Day 9. Unofficially, I had Jones 7-of-13, including a red-zone sack. Jones was picked twice, on two very catchable balls. Early in practice, veteran receiver Nick Westbrook-Ikhine couldn’t secure a ball slightly out of his catch radius, leading to rookie A.J. Haulcy snagging an interception. Later in practice, a play with no answers popping up led to Jones looking out wide to a covered Jonathan Taylor. The veteran running back couldn’t handle the pass and Cam Bynum was right there ready for the turnover. Facing a situational period to end practice (down 1, 52 seconds, 1 timeout) and needing to get into field goal range, Jones and the starters went 2-of-5, with Shrader pulling one from 55 yards. Sauce Garnder and Cam Taylor-Britt had pass breakups in this period. It hasn’t been too tough for the starting offense this camp, but Sunday had a different feel.

-The Colts flipflopped the second-team periods again on Sunday, with Anthony Richardson Sr. getting one more session than Riley Leonard. Richardson went 2-of-5 against some stick coverage to start a red zone period. Later Richardson had his finest play of camp, connecting to rookie Deion Burks to start the same “field goal” situational period. After a defensive pass interference penalty, rookie Seth McGowan ripped off a big touchdown drive to cap the quickly moving 3-play TD drive. Leonard also had a nice highlight, going 3-of-4 on a touchdown drive, with a really beautiful throw to Eli Pancol for the score. Positive moments have been hard to come by for Richardson and Leonard this camp. They had some though on Sunday.

-Speaking of Richardson and Leonard, it sounds like they will get the heavy QB work in Thursday’s preseason opener. Shane Steichen is still sifting through his decision for how many starters will play on Thursday, but I wouldn’t expect many to play. And I’d be stunned if Daniel Jones plays a single snap in the preseason.

-A growing separation is occurring in the kicker battle at training camp. Sunday was Spencer Shrader’s day to kick. He went 4-of-8, making form 25, 33, 42 and 48 yards, but missing form 50, 52, 55 and 55 yards. His misses continue to mainly be to the left. For camp, Shrader is now 20-of-30. Blake Grupe is 27-of-30.

-Are the Colts planning to add a wide receiver anytime soon? “We are looking,” Shane Steichen said after Sunday’s practice. “We are always looking and doing our research in that. But I like the group we got. And those guys are battling right now. So we’ll see where it goes.” While the return of Alec Pierce (ankle) doesn’t seem to be imminent, Steichen said Josh Doens (groin) could be back Tuesday for the joint practice game with the Patriots.

-Going back to Richardson for a second, him and Leonard met the media on Sunday. Richardson was pretty non-committal about his pending trade request. The former top-5 pick was asked about the snap handling issues we’ve seen in camp. Richardson said it was more of a hand placement issue that he thinks he’s corrected, as opposed to something lingering with his vision.

-With so much questions about the state of receiver group, particularly with injuries mounting, are there any in-house names to watch? One that could be a sneaky 53-man roster challenger is slot wideout Coleman Owen. In 2025, Owen had a productive camp/preseason with the Colts and spent the year on the practice squad. He actually played 2 late-season games for the Colts, fielding 1 punt and 5 kick returns. Now with Anthony Gould, Deion Burks and Owen, you have similar body types trying to keep/earn return duties to go along with a back end of the receiver depth chart spot. The Colts probably have room for just one of these guys. But Owen is one not to write off, despite not having the draft pick label like the other two. Owen had a nice run after the catch on a crosser route from Riley Leonard during a 7-on-7 period on Sunday.

-Here is how the starting offense looked on Sunday: QB-Daniel Jones, RB-Jonathan Taylor, WR-Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, WR-Ashton Dulin, TE-Mo Alie-Cox, TE-Tyler Warren, LT-Bernhard Raimann, LG-Quenton Nelson, C-Tanor Bortolini, RG-Matt Goncalves, RT-Jalen Travis.

-Here is how the starting defense looked on Sunday: DE-Laiatu Latu, DT-Grover Stewart, DE-Arden Key, DT-Colby Wooden, LB-Austin Ajiake, LB-Bryce Boettcher, CB-Cam Taylor-Britt, CB-Charvarius Ward Sr., CB-Sauce Gardner, S-Cam Bynum, S-A.J. Haulcy.

-Guys that stood out at Sunday’s practice: CB-Coleman Owen, WR-Eli Pancol, LB-Devin Veresuk, RB-Anderson Castle.

Injury Report: The following players did not appear to be participating at Sunday’s practice: WR-Alec Pierce (calf, on PUP), S-Hunter Wohler (hamstring), CJ Allen (hamstring), WR-Laquon Treadwell (hamstring), RB-D.J. Giddens (hamstring), WR-Josh Downs (groin), LB-CJ Allen (hamstring), CB-Justin Walley (hamstring).

2026 Colts Training Camp Schedule

-8/11 (Tuesday): Joint practice at New England

-8/13 (Thursday): Preseason game at New England, 7:30 PM

-8/15 (Saturday): 4:00-5:00 PM practice

-8/16 (Sunday): 4:00-5:30 PM practice

-8/19 (Wednesday joint practices with Falcons): 3:00-5:00 PM practice

-8/20 (Thursday joint practices with Falcons): 3:00-4:30 PM practice

-8/22 (Saturday): 2^nd preseason game vs. Falcons, 1:00 PM